UIA not abandons plans to purchase Boeing 737 MAX

“We are not planning to refuse [to purchase Boeing 737 MAX] so far. We hope that everything will be settled and we will be able to use these aircraft,” UIA Vice President Commerce Serhiy Fomenko said in a commentary to Ukrinform.

Fomenko noted that the date of Boeing 737 MAX receipt depended on the issuance of permits [for aircraft operation] from the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine.

Fomenko recalled that UIA was forced to cut a number of flights for this summer.

As reported, in October last year, Boeing 737 MAX owned by Lion Air airline crashed in Indonesia. It fell into the sea almost immediately after takeoff. 189 people died as a result of the crash. On March 10, 2019, the same aircraft model owned by Ethiopian Airlines crashed a few minutes after taking off at the Addis Ababa Airport (Ethiopia). 149 passengers and eight crewmembers did not survive.

The investigation revealed common failures in the systems of both aircraft. After that, the 737 Max models were withdrawn from service to update the software.

On March 12, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an Airworthiness Directive, suspending all flight operations of all Boeing Model 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX planes in Europe. On March 13, Ukraine joined the suspension.

Now there are no Boeing 737 MAX planes in the UIA fleet, but the delivery of three planes of this model is planned for 2019. UIA previously reported that it was engaged in an active dialogue with the manufacturer of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and was closely following the investigation into crashes.

On April 4, UIA announced the cancellation of some of the flights on both domestic and international routes in the summer season. The main reason for this decision was the delay in the delivery of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

Flight program changes include reducing the frequency of flights on routes to Athens, Istanbul, Yerevan, closing Kyiv-Vinnytsia route and canceling some flights from Kyiv to Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk, Baku, Minsk, Riga, Geneva, Amman and Ankara.

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